450 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
450 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
culture
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music
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rockandpopfeatures
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8450113
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# Dave Grohl interview
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## 'The Nicest Man in Rock' on endless touring, the legacy of Nirvana and
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what he'd do to protect the Foos
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![Dave Grohl ][1]
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Image 1 of 5
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Dave Grohl Photo: Alessandra Petlin,
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![Dave Grohl, Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic - early 1990's][2]
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Image 1 of 5
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Dave Grohl, Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic - early 1990's Photo: REX FEATURES
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![Grohl arrives to the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, in Los Angeles][3]
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Image 1 of 5
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Grohl arrives to the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, in Los Angeles Photo: Getty Images
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![Dave Grohl ][4]
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Image 1 of 5
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Dave Grohl Photo: Alessandra Petlin
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![Foo Fighters, Goat Island in Sydney, Australia - 24 Mar 2011.][5]
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Image 1 of 5
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Foo Fighters, Goat Island in Sydney, Australia - 24 Mar 2011. Photo: REX
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FEATURES
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By Craig McLean 8:48AM BST 18 Apr 2011
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[Comments][6]
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Is Dave Grohl, leader of [Foo Fighters][7] and former drummer with Nirvana,
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The Nicest Man In Rock? Everyone - journalists, other musicians, his mother -
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says he is. But is he really? Here's the case against. For one thing, these
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days he may be a happily married father of two, but after his first marriage
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ended, he had a John Lennon-style "Lost Weekend".
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"I moved to Los Angeles for one year in 1997. That was post-divorce,"
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remembers the 42-year-old who, via his two Nirvana albums and six Foo Fighters
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releases, can lay claim to record sales of 25 million copies. He didn't lose
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himself in a haze of drug abuse, "but I did all of the other things..."
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So, he's a sleazeball. Well, he was. Briefly. Fourteen years ago. "And that's
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it. That was enough for me, that one year. Because how could that possibly
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make you feel fulfilled? That momentary reward isn't enough."
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More evidence for the prosecution: Foo Fighters have been chugging onwards,
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pumping out sturdy pop-rock hit singles (_This Is A Call_, _Everlong_, _Times
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Like These_) since 1995, the year after Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain shot
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himself. But they've had a revolving door of personnel in that time. The man
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responsible for the hiring, firing and retiring of a fistful of guitarists and
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drummers? David Eric Grohl.
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This merry-go-round is recounted in wincing detail in _Back And Forth_, a new
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documentary about the band. It is being released in cinemas in parallel with
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the appearance of the latest Foo Fighters album, _Wasting Light_. However, all
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the ex-members of the band were happy to be interviewed for the film. If
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grudges are held, they're outweighed by the musicians' continued respect for
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their erstwhile leader. Plus, to his credit, Grohl admits he found it
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"abso-f------ -lutely uncomfortable watching the film".
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## Related Articles
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* [Dave Grohl on Foo Fighters' Wasting Light album][8]
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18 Apr 2011
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* [Foo Fighters top of UK album chart][9]
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18 Apr 2011
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* [Dave Grohl's 2011: Muppets, tours and a new album][10]
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11 Jan 2011
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* [Foo Fighters, Wasting Light, CD of the week][11]
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07 Apr 2011
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* [Foo Fighters release documentary for 'the hardcore fans'][12]
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06 Apr 2011
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* [Foo Fighters, Wembley Arena][13]
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28 Feb 2011
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Did he feel guilty? "Totally. Yeah, it was hard - but it's a true story so why
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not tell it?"
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The Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter and guitarist says that his
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"territorial" protection of his band is what led him, for example, to re-
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record all the drums himself on Foo Fighters' second album, _The Colour And
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The Shape_ (1997), much to the distress of the band's then-drummer (cue
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drummer walking out). "I did it because I knew the album wasn't going to make
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it unless I did." Thus, paradoxically, protecting the band is what makes him
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get his "claws out"?
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"Absolutely," he nods vigorously, pointing out that the current line-up of the
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band has been unchanged for five years. "I mean, I never liked being told what
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to do. It's one of the reasons I dropped out of school. Give me something to
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assemble, I won't look at the directions, I'll try to figure it out by myself.
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It's why I love Ikea furniture." The prosecution rests, and will proffer a
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plea bargain. The evidence suggests that Grohl may indeed be The Nicest Person
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In Rock, a smart, candid, respectful, generous, enthusiastic purist. He even
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loves Ikea.
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My month shadowing Grohl and his bandmates (guitarists Pat Smear and Chris
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Shiflett, bassist Nate Mendel, drummer Taylor Hawkins) begins one February
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night at the plush premises of the British Academy of Film & Television Arts
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in central London.
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Bafta is hosting a screening of _Back And Forth_. As a piece of "rockumentary"
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film-making goes, it exhaustively grills the band about their relationships
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with each other - in the words of the singer, there are few "wacky tour
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anecdotes". In unflashy detail, and via archive footage and new interviews
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with the band conducted by the director ("I did 14 hours!"), it details
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Grohl's musical history: pre-Nirvana, when he was in punk bands in Los Angeles
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and Seattle; joining Nirvana in 1990, prior to the recording of their landmark
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second album _Nevermind_; his "crash course in rock", between 1991-94, when
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the trio, contrary to anyone's expectations, became the biggest band in the
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world; the horror of Cobain's descent into heroin addiction and his suicide,
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17 years ago, at the age of 27.
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As the nearly two-hour film zips onwards, we see Grohl's re-emergence as a
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gifted writer and frontman in his own right. It was more than anyone expected
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from the drummer dubbed "grunge Ringo" - even if he had been fundamental to
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the success of a band that reshaped what "alternative rock" meant.
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Then we follow 16 years of roaring success - in support of their last album,
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2007's _Echoes_, _Silence_, _Patience & Grace_, Foo Fighters sold out two
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nights at Wembley Stadium; that's 170,000 tickets - and some occasionally
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troubling inter-personnel trauma. After the screening, the band file into the
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Bafta bar. Strapping, well-preserved Grohl is dressed, as is his is wont, in a
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rock-oriented T-shirt (Motorhead), jeans and trainers. His shiny hair is
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shoulder-length, his goatee neatly trimmed; his tattooed forearms are meaty,
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his teeth bright, white and big.
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The following night, Foo Fighters are guests of honour at the NME Awards at
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Brixton Academy in south London. Grohl is being honoured as 2011's "Godlike
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Genius" by the music magazine. Towards the end of the boozy bash, Roger
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Daltrey presents Grohl's award. The Who frontman introduces Grohl by saying
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he'd heard "the sound of knickers hitting the floor when Dave walked in the
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room". A sheepish Grohl concludes a short speech by saying "this one's for
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Kurt". When I ask why he said this, he replies: "Because can't you imagine
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that he would have had that award years ago? So yeah, I was sharing it with
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him."
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At the close of the ceremony, Foo Fighters were expected to play a short set
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of four or five songs. They began with Daltrey joining them on a cover of The
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Who's _Young Man Blues_. They ended, two and a half hours later, with Grohl
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playing another huge guitar solo.
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The next night, they turn up at the invitation-only opening of an exhibition
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dedicated to Queen, being held in an old brewery in Shoreditch. Grohl, a rock
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Anglophile whose earliest music obsession was Led Zeppelin, admits to being a
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fan.
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Roger Taylor and Brian May, the two active/alive members of the band, also
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turned up. But, Grohl tells me afterwards, he didn't enjoy it so much. "I
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wanted to be this anonymous Queen fan, walking around and taking it all in,
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with the headphones on. But I wound up having to pose for a picture with
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everybody and their mother. So I gave up after about an hour."
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I next see Foo Fighters in mid-March. They've come to Austin, Texas, to SXSW
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(South By Southwest), a music festival for, mainly, up and coming "buzz"
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bands. There is also a film strand, and the LA-based five-piece are here to
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premiere their documentary. And while they're here, they might as well do
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another secret show. They play for almost two hours behind a rib shack called
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Stubbs. The second song is new single _Rope_, which already sounds like a
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classic Foos anthem.
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The following afternoon, the band are in a stone-built, 90-year-old scout hut
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in a country park a little way from the centre of town. Grohl, true to
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engaging form, is buzzing: happy to be "on the road", happy to be talking
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about the new record, thrilled to be launching it at SXSW. That said, he is
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missing his children. Violet is four and Harper is 18 months old. Jordyn, the
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wife he met 10 years ago and a former MTV producer, is used to his extended
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absences. But having a young family was one reason he decided to make _Wasting
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Light_ at home, in his garage. The documentary's final portion sees these
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recording sessions, with walk-on parts for his children.
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"I love everything about my job, except being away from the kids. This," he
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says, showing me a chunky gold ring with his initials on it, "the day I was
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leaving, my daughter said, 'Daddy, I want you to wear this. And every time you
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miss me, look at this ring and just know that I love you so much'. She's not
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even five! I was blown away."
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Grohl is a renowned workaholic - he has participated in numerous musical side-
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projects, and one of the themes of _Back And_ _Forth_ is just how long Foo
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Fighters spend on tour.
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Does having a young family make him use his time more efficiently? "Yeah. I
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was talking to my mother about this the other day. She was a public school
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teacher for 35 years, so she worked. And I was driving to the studio - because
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even on our time off, it's not time off - I'm in there every day, 10 in the
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morning, doing stuff. I'm president of Foos Inc, that f------ corporation!"
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His mother, who now lives near him in LA, was worried he worked too hard. He
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had to tell her that was how she'd raised him. After his parents divorced when
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he was seven - his father was a political speech writer in Washington DC -
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money was scarce. Hard work was ingrained.
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In any case, Grohl points out as we talk on a windy terrace overlooking
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Austin: "How could you not want to do this? I get to sit around and talk about
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rock'n'roll all day, then go play music with my friends and laugh my a-- off
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backstage, until it's time to have a beer and get 80,000 people to sing with
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me. That's not work!"
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Does Violet understand what her father's job is?
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"Absolutely. We have this Richard Scarry book, _Busytown_. Joe's a plumber,
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Joe fixes your pipes when they're blocked. This is a lawyer, he helps people
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settle arguments." One day two years ago, Grohl had to go to the "office": 606
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Studios, Foo Fighters' huge rehearsal and recording facility in Northridge, 45
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minutes' drive from West Hollywood. "And I said, 'OK, Boo, I'm leaving'."
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"'Where are you going?'"
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"'I'm going to work'."
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"'Why?'"
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"'Well, some daddies are lawyers, some are doctors - I'm a musician, that's my
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job. And I go to work so that I can make money so we can have food and you can
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have clothes and you can have toys'. And she immediately said, 'I don't have
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enough toys!"' Grohl laughs uproariously.
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"But I have little tricks - if I'm gone for 10 days, I'll write 10 letters,
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and every day I'm gone, my wife gives them a letter. Or I make a calendar and
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I'll let them draw the pictures. I left high school at 17. I was on the road
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on my 18th birthday. And my mother watched me jump in a van with five other
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dirty punk rockers, and I'd say, 'OK, I'll be back in two months'. Called her
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once or twice from a payphone, sent her a postcard."
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Pause. "I would never let my child do that!"
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His life, he says, revolves around two families: the band, and his wife and
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kids. They, and his closeness to his roots, kept him grounded when he might
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have been expected to lose it in the manner of so many rockers before him.
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"When Nirvana became popular, you could very easily slip and get lost during
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that storm. I fortunately had really heavy anchors - old friends, family. And
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if I ever felt like I was being swept away, I'd just run back to Virginia.
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Drinking at the rib restaurant with my buddies, and the bartender I went to
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high school with, that's what kept me from losing it."
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Also, he has perspective on the destructive force of drugs. He lost Cobain,
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and he almost lost Taylor Hawkins. The Foo Fighters drummer overdosed in
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London in 2001 and Grohl sat with him until he came out of his coma. "A part
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of me resented music for doing this to my friends. I just felt like, 'I don't
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want to play any more if it's gonna make my friend die'." He seriously thought
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about giving up music? "Absolutely!" Grohl says forcefully. "When he woke up,
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I said, 'Dude, I just want you to know, we're not talking about the band until
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you're ready.' And we didn't for a while."
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His inner-strength, he acknowledges, had been forged early on. And, in a way,
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out of necessity. "I stopped doing drugs when I was 20. I was finished with
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drugs before Nirvana even started. And I didn't do hard drugs. I saw it as
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something that would make everything a little more difficult.
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"I also know myself well enough to keep out of that. As soon as I get my face
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in a pile of coke, it's game over - teeth out, money gone. You see the way I
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drink coffee! It'd be all over!" he laughs.
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"Plus, I've seen it before - before I was in Nirvana I knew people who had
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OD'd. I love to play music. So why endanger that with something like drugs?"
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What kind of 44-year-old does Grohl think Cobain would have been? "I don't
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know,"'he says a little heavily. "He'd probably be the same 25-, 26-year-old
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he was. Unfortunately we'll never know." Talking about Cobain is the one time
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his natural ebullience levels off. Next month is the 20th anniversary of the
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recording of _Nevermind_. Grohl admits the memory of those more innocent times
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still looms large in his thoughts.
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As does, it seems, Cobain's widow Courtney Love, with whom there is no love
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lost. The infamously ranting sometime-musician has variously claimed that
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Grohl used to repeatedly "hit on" her; that Cobain "loathed" Grohl; and that
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he wanted him out of Nirvana.
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In a manner more legal than gutter, Grohl and Krist Novoselic have clashed
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with Love over the commercial use (and abuse) of Nirvana's music and Cobain's
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legacy, most recently over a Cobain avatar that appeared on computer game
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_Guitar Hero_ _5_. _On the Echoes_, _Silence_, _Patience & Grace_ song _Let It
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Die_, Grohl sang of "a simple man and his blushing bride/intravenous,
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intertwined" - widely seen as a reference to Kurt and Courtney.
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Today, mention of Love makes him grit his teeth, but he leavens his scant
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comments with humour. "Can I describe my relationship with Courtney in three
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words? No. I. Can't!"
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Grohl says he continues to dream about his former bandmate. Making _Wasting
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Light_ with producer Butch Vig (who worked on _Nevermind_) and having the
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band's bass player Novoselic guest on a song, "brought back some really funny
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memories. When you're with people who were there at the same time, you feel
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like you're there again."
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Are the dreams musical? "No," he begins. "Well, I've had a few dreams where
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Kurt shows up and I'm so blown away. 'Wait, you never died?' For whatever
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reason, he'd just been hiding." He smiles, a little. "And the three of us get
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together to be a band again." He pauses and frowns. "It's totally weird."
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The afternoon ahead is packed with media engagements. In the evening, Foo
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Fighters are premiering _Rope_ on an MTV show being filmed live in Austin.
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Then it's home to LA for a while. On the horizon: a summer of touring,
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including two sold-out performances at Milton Keynes Bowl. Until then, Grohl
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will slip back into his domestic role.
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"There have been times in LA when I'll be in a farmers' market with my wife
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and we're sitting down away from everyone, and she's breastfeeding our child -
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and paparazzi are taking pictures of her breastfeeding! If I didn't think I'd
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get sued I'd _murder_ that person. How dare anyone do something like that?"
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The Nicest Guy In Rock is angry. Time to wind him up further. Recently there
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was a statistical analysis of the kind of songs that had been successful in
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the charts in 2010. For the first time, r&b and pop dominated, at the expense
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of the musical form that has occupied most of Grohl's waking - and sometimes
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dreaming - thoughts since his adolescence.
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So, does Dave think rock is dead? He scoffs. "They say that every year. What,
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it's dead again?" He grins his toothy grin. "Ask the 130,000 people who bought
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a ticket to Milton Keynes if they think rock is dead. I don't. It's not dead
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to me. Never has been."
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_'Wasting Light' (Columbia) is out now. For tour details visit
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www.foofighters.com_
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[**![][14] **][15]**Buy [Foo Fighters Tickets][16] from [Telegraph
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Tickets][15] [![][17]][16]**
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[X][18] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][19]
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* Share: [Share][18] [ ][20] [ ][21]
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[Tweet][22]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/8450113/Dave-
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Grohl-interview.html
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Telegraph
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## [Rock and Pop Features][23]
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* ### [News »][24]
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* ### [Culture »][25]
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* ### [Culture News »][26]
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* ### [Music »][27]
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* ### [Music news »][28]
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[![Buy Take That tickets][29]][30]
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### [Buy Take That Tickets][30]
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In culture
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[![George Martin][31] ][32]
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### [Auteurs make pop a matter of record][32]
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[![Mother of four and singer Stacey Jackson, dubbed Soccer Mom Rocker Mom, is
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an inspiration to yummy mummies everywhere.][33] ][34]
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### [The Cut Podcast: 11 March 2011][34]
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[![Justin Vernon of Bon Ivo][35] ][36]
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### [Top 10 songs named after real places][36]
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[![Bob Dylan turns 70 in May 2011][37] ][38]
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### [Bob Dylan's action-packed 2011][38]
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[![Marques Toliver: 'Whenever I perform, wherever it is, I imagine I?m on the
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Grammys?
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][39] ][40]
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### [Marques Toliver: Rise of the singing violinist][40]
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[X][18] Share & bookmark
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][19]
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Share:
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* [ ][18]
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* [ ][20]
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* [ ][21]
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* [Tweet][22]
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* Advertisement
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![][41]
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telegraphuk
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